After 23 years and nearly 5,000 episodes, Around the Horn is set to be canceled on May 23, but ESPN has been coy about its reasoning.
The strange thing about Around the Horn’s cancellation is that it comes at a time where the show is still successful. It has brand recognition, it gets decent ratings, so why is ESPN deciding to go this route?
The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis joined Jimmy Traina on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast this week and put the fate of Around the Horn bluntly. ESPN has no place for it.
“We’ve seen nothing from Jimmy Pitaro’s ESPN, and maybe even a little bit before that, other than the fact that these shows just don’t have a place at that network anymore,” Curtis told Traina. “There’s not room for them. There’s room for Stephen A. [Smith], there’s room for [Pat] McAfee, but other than PTI, which may be grandfathered in until Tony [Kornheiser] and Mike [Wilbon] don’t want to do it anymore, I just don’t think ESPN is interested in that kind of show.”
There’s plenty of room for shows like Around the Horn in terms of hours to fill, but it’s just not the type of programming ESPN seeks to prioritize anymore. Ratings may have been fine, but realistically ESPN prioritizes big personalities and big games, with extra emphasis on the big games. If it’s not Stephen A. Smith and it’s not Pat McAfee, every other daytime show will have to prove they serve a league partner, even more than serving an audience.
“When we go into the streaming world, what is daytime ESPN?” Curtis asked. “We’re just used to having things that are on because ESPN needs to fill hours during the day. And other than the big personalities they built around…what you’ve seen is them basically prune all that stuff away and say, ‘It can be SportsCenter, it can be shoulder programming for the NFL and one of our partners that we need to keep happy… but that’s kinda all we’re interested in.’”
As TV audiences increasingly migrate to streaming services, ESPN knows they’ll come back for games. But so much of ESPN’s programming is built on just getting to its next Monday Night Football game. And as shows like Around the Horn get pushed aside, it’s becoming more apparent that ESPN views the hours between games as one giant infomercial.
